Hesitating during a kill was an enormous taboo, and it was something that Theron would never do normally.
But then he recognized the voice.
Flora.
Theron's eyes narrowed.
Most assassins, probably all truthfully, would change the tone of their voice. The reason Flora's voice was recognized by Theron was most definitely because she did it either on purpose or in a panic.
It was hard to maintain your calm when truly facing death.
Flora, as far as Theron knew, was Sadie's best friend. The implications of her being here were quite shocking, but worse than that… as far as Theron knew, Flora was only 12 or 13 years old, just like Sadie, which was part of why they were so close.
Such a young girl already being at the Ninth Resonance? Just what was going on here?
For context, Thessa was about 17 years old and was a step from Silver Mancy. She was known as a great genius by her Sect.
Compared to that, Flora was leagues beyond. And Theron had never sensed it.
This fact only made Theron more cautious.
He was certain that if Flora could hide it from him in the academy, she should be able to hide it from him now as well. Why was she so open with her cultivation when she didn't have to be?
'Something is off.'
Theron might have paused his dagger, but he didn't let up. The sphere of water was still hidden behind him as he rested his short sword on Flora's shoulder.
"Take off your hood. Slowly."
Flora trembled, sensing the cold in Theron's voice. There was no doubt in her mind that he would kill her should she not be able to reach his standards, standards she had no way of knowing.
For all she knew, he had already decided to kill her no matter what, and she was only alive now because he wanted information about how she knew it was him.
"Now your face mask," Theron pressed.
Flora trembled, and Theron could sense clear hesitation.
'There is definitely something wrong.'
It didn't make sense. Why would she hesitate now when she should know that he had already recognized her voice? What was the difference between that and taking off her face mask?
"You won't… you won't recognize me…" she said with a trembling voice.
Theron paused, understanding. If Flora's identity in the academy was a facade, then it would make sense if he didn't know her real face.
But something still felt off to him.
"Take it off."
Flora took a breath and calmed herself. In the end, she was an assassin herself. Facing off against death the first time, she had completely lost her cool. But after the immediacy of it faded, her heart rate began to slow once more.
Listening to Theron, she once again moved slowly, peeling the skin mask off of her face.
'I indeed don't recognize her… even the eyes are different. This skin mask is far more advanced than my own; even the facial muscles themselves are changed.'
There was a delicate face in front of him, almost too perfectly round. It was like a little doll leaning against the trunk of a tree.
Theron's heart skipped a beat.
'No… a coincidence?'
His pupils constricted the more he looked.
"You… who are you?"
The more Theron looked, the more the connections were made. His heart was leaping into his throat under the implications, but he couldn't bring himself to form them completely.
He continued to stare at the unfamiliar woman in front of him, and Flora herself was stunned by his response.
"You… you can feel it?" she asked. "No, you can see it?"
When she said these words, Theron felt as though his mind imploded. The synapses fired all on their own like crackling fireworks dancing within his skull.
This delicate-looking little girl in front of him, he was sure of it. Her face was 50% that of Flora's… and 50% that of Sadie's.
It was so surreal that he didn't believe it at first. Setting aside their age, just the biology of it was impossible, not unless maybe Flora and Sadie were actually sisters and this was a third sibling of theirs.
But the odds of that were impossibly low, so much so that the ridiculous answer made more sense.
This assassin was a fusion of the two.
"You're not a Wind Mancer," Theron said as more of a statement than a question.
His dagger flashed and he cut open Flora—or Sadie's cloak, he truly wasn't sure anymore. There, against her chest, a necklace lay.
As expected, there was a strong pulse of Wind Mana coming from it. Not only that, but it radiated the core of the Ninth Resonance energy that he was feeling from Flora.
He was astonished once again, not just by the grade of the treasure, but the implications as well.
Flora—or Sadie—wasn't a Wind Mancer. And yet, she was using an external item to display the skill of a Ninth Resonance Wind Mancer without the slightest hint of awkwardness.
And if Theron was correct, Flora had no affinity with Wind Mana at all. Maybe the necklace could bridge that gap a bit, but it certainly shouldn't be able to do it to this extent, no matter how high-ranking the treasure was.
That all led to one conclusion, or maybe a question, rather…
Just how skilled was Flora with her true affinity if she could display this level of skill with an opposing Mana?
And… what the hell was her real cultivation if even he couldn't sense it?
"… You're not a Bronze Mancer, either."
Theron gripped his blades tightly. If Flora showed any signs of revealing her true strength, he would act without mercy. The problem with hiding your real power so thoroughly was that you would also be vulnerable.
Did he have any confidence in cutting through the body of a Silver Mancer? Not in the slightest. But that didn't mean he would keel over and die.
And by the same token, he was also sure of why he had been exposed.
It seemed that in all likelihood… Little Sadie wasn't as naive as she had seemed. All of his "subtle" questioning in order to prepare for the Yonowai assassination must not have been very subtle to her at all.